Brick House Slough

[David Unnerstall]

Is anyone fishing Brick House Slough, these days? I need to find some spots close to home that I can fish for a few hours in the canoe and still get home in time for chores. I fished there a lot for bass when we all thought there was bass in there some years back but have not been there in a while. I assume one can catch catfish but does anyone catch anything else?

[Mitch f]

I caught a couple of pretty nice LMB (3 LBs) a few years ago but only fished it once

[rainbow]

Have not fished it for years but used to jug fish it a lot. We caught just about everything in the river on jugs with cut bait, hot dogs and worms. Used to be a good spot in early summer.

[WHARFRAT]

Haven't fished it since mid 80's. Used to duck hunt there all the time. BTW this was before they levied it and put those pull-overs in. Anyway, one day while constructing a duck blind, I saw a couple of guys come motoring near us with some long poles. They started drowning minnows in the middle of the brush along the banks. While they were there, they caught quite a few crappie. My buddy and I went back the next couple weeks and finished our blind, but took some time to fish. We caught quite a few, nothing big, maybe up to 9" (maybe). Did it a couple of time in the spring, about the same results. After they put the levy around the island, we never went back. I haven't heard anybody crappie fishing there lately. Still looks like you could catch em.

[David Unnerstall]

Thanks guys, this is on the list this Spring. It sounds like the place for a white RoadRunner to see what is there. I will be in the canoe so it would be C&R. It won't be the same without a stop at Big Al's in Portage Des Souix on the way home, though.

[Greasy B]

I have a lot of fond memories of Brick House though most don't include catching fish. The fish I have caught were nice size and always came as a surprise. "Wow, what do you know I actually caught one" was the usual reaction. Unlike the places most of us spend our time most fish in that river live and die without ever seeing a lure.

[Blazerman]

Anybody else remember when they did a bass tournament on the Mississippi and the winning fish came from Brick house slough. I don't remember who put it on but i think there were some big time bass fisherman fishing it. I haven't looked for any info on it so i'll see what i can find. But i was thinking someone might remember.

[Jerry Rapp]

it was a bassmaster tournament. early 90's. If I remember correctly, Woo Daves won it fishing big plastic worms in Brickhouse.

[Blazerman]

Good memory JR,. i looked it up. 1991 Illinois Invitational. Woo won $35,000 and his winning weight was 18.13. 325 total contestants and some big names from back in the day and a few who are still fishing the big tournaments. I recognized some local guys too. Not many fish were caught it looks like, at least not big ones.

http://www.bassmaster.com/tournaments/1991-illinois-invitational/results/0/

[Greasy B]

Don't know if it's true but the story I remember was the water was high and the winners pushed their boats over logs into smelzers lake.